Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site ucla-cs.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!trwrb!trwrba!cepu!ucla-cs!trav From: trav@ucla-cs.UUCP Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Re: DeGaulle and the French Message-ID: <3907@ucla-cs.ARPA> Date: Wed, 13-Feb-85 13:08:03 EST Article-I.D.: ucla-cs.3907 Posted: Wed Feb 13 13:08:03 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 17-Feb-85 05:42:49 EST References: <474@ima.UUCP> Reply-To: trav@ucla-cs.UUCP (Pascal Traverse) Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department Lines: 56 Summary: I don't think that France and DeGaulle were perfect all the time. But the description made by the article of ltmolloy@ima.UUCP, <474@ima.UUCP>, seems to me a bit too dark, and inexact. >..... Ike, leading the Axis powers .... Axis powers = Germany, Italy, Japan. >...... French incompetence in military matters. ... We could discuss this point on a general basis. Anyway, between WWI and WWII, the decided strategy was the use of a static line of defense (la ligne Maginot) between Germany and France. It did not work very well in 1940. >... The Germans, swiping through the Maginot line,.... They passed round the Maginot line, through the Ardennes, in neutral Belgium. >... DeGaulle, as incompetent as the rest of the French military, ... Between WWI and WWII, DeGaulle was fighting the French military establishment. The tactic he proposed was to be used by the Germans and the Allied forces, with some success. > ...DeGaulle was intentionally ignored by Eisenhower ... You can add Roosevelt too. DeGaulle was denied any representativity during the war, when he was recognized by Churchill and all the French resistants (except may be the communists). > To say the least DeGaulle was infuriated. Sure! The US plan for France after the liberation was to administer this country in the same way as Germany: as an occupied land. At the same time the allied forces landed in Normandy (with some French troups), the DeGaulle's administration arrived too. In all liberated towns, there were the Free French administration and the US military one. After a while, the US agreed to let DeGaulle alone. >DeGaulle pretended to retake Paris, and appeared to liberate the >city of lights. While a lot of French resistants were struggling in Paris, the Allied plan was to avoid to fight in Paris. The fear for the French was that the German would destroy the insurgents, and the town. This was indeed the nazis plan. Fortunately, the German officer in charge of the town (Von Schaultitz) did not applied the orders of Hitler to destroy the town, and the French troops entered the town. > NATO membership was conditional, yet aide was sought. But constantly DeGaulle DeGaulle was president of France mainly from 1958 to 1969. During this period, he decided France to stay in NATO, but not in the military organisation. He was looking toward a kind of neutralism between the two blocks. In case of crisis (Berlin, 196?), he standed firmly on the side of Kennedy. At this time, the US were not giving any aide, as far as I know. -- Pascal Traverse UCLA Computer Science Department 3732 Boelter Hall // Los Angeles, CA 90024 // (213) 825-4885 ARPA: trav@UCLA-LOCUS.ARPA UUCP: ...!{cepu,ihnp4,trwspp,ucbvax}!ucla-cs!trav